WBI Investments LLC Takes $1.96 Million Position in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

WBI Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 5,561 shares of the information technology services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,956,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 6.5% during the 4th quarter. Baldwin Wealth Partners LLC MA now owns 63,429 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $22,314,000 after buying an additional 3,883 shares during the last quarter. Davidson Trust Co. grew its stake in shares of Accenture by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Davidson Trust Co. now owns 2,307 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $812,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 37.5% during the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,094 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $1,088,000 after purchasing an additional 843 shares during the last quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Accenture by 127.1% during the fourth quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 2,323 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $817,000 after purchasing an additional 1,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,325,526,000 after acquiring an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Angela Beatty sold 169 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.90, for a total transaction of $47,641.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,364 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,512,111.60. This trade represents a 3.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Joel Unruch sold 3,563 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.78, for a total value of $1,003,982.14. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 17,237 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,857,041.86. This trade represents a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 8,516 shares of company stock valued at $2,507,366. Corporate insiders own 0.02% of the company's stock.

Accenture Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $1.50 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $316.22. 2,995,018 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,993,815. Accenture plc has a 1 year low of $275.01 and a 1 year high of $398.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $198.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.53, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The business has a 50 day moving average of $302.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $340.66.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. The business had revenue of $16.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.77 earnings per share. Accenture's revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. Accenture's dividend payout ratio is currently 48.89%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays dropped their target price on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $380.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Accenture from $399.00 to $392.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Baird R W raised Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Accenture from $380.00 to $372.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Accenture currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $382.14.

About Accenture

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.